I think the Long Way Round series has done more damage to the activity of off-road riding than any other movie/show ever released. If one really watches them with a critical and experienced eye, one can see that the manic duo picked the wrong bike for the job and suffered the consequences of that mistake through just about every sequence in the shows. They again repeated the mistake the second time in LWD as well.

But all the n00bs who watch it flocked to the BMW dealers and paged through the Touratech wish books for ages dreaming of riding these supertankers around the world. Most never get them off a paved road, much less onto real "off" road situations where they do so poorly. But a few do and suffer the consequences of riding an obese street bike in a dirtbike costume on real offroad terrain.

A skilled rider can pilot anything and these bikes do come with slightly longer travel suspensions and a few other minimalist equipment that will help them do the impossible if the rider has what it takes to magically float these beasts over rough terrain -at least better than a standard road bike without any ground clearance or longer suspension travel.

I have to laugh at the guys from KTM who royally SCREWED themselves by not giving these two guys a more capable (yet still too massive) set of bikes and securing themselves a huge marketing coup. That guy in LWR who stiffed the manic/depressive dou their pair of bikes probably lost his company millions of dollars in future sales. his mistake was EPIC, and not only cost his company, but I feel cost us all in steering the activity the wrong way round.

I have to laugh at the guys from KTM who royally SCREWED themselves by not giving these two guys a more capable (yet still too massive) set of bikes and securing themselves a huge marketing coup. That guy in LWR who stiffed the manic/depressive dou their pair of bikes probably lost his company millions of dollars in future sales. his mistake was EPIC, and not only cost his company, but I feel cost us all in steering the activity the wrong way round.

Spilt milk I guess.. /snivel[/quote]

Kinda like the guy at M&Ms who thought E.T. would scare kids and told the producers NO. I'm hazarding a guess Reese's was glad of that execs shortsightedness...

It would not have helped KTM when their bikes kept braking down and their engines grenaded in the middle of the movie.

I think the guy from KTM is a genius and saved them from a load of bad publicity.

Click to expand...

Haha not like the ultra reliable BMW's that didn't have any problems.. Well other than the numerous frame breaks.. oh and that time they welded the frames and the brakes quit working :huh And there were all those blown shocks.

I have never been able to watch the show more than a couple of episodes. Friends I have are doing far more interesting and courageous adventure travel without the support this two "actors" have. It is not the bikes, but the nature and concept behind the show that is self defeating, IMHO. I wish they had gone KTM and let GS be without them.

It's TV. It's entertainment. Thats all it is. I enjoyed it. Its better than other garbage I could've watched (mtv,vh1 etc). I didn't watch it as a How-to video.
If people want to flock to the BMW dealers and buy everything Touratech, thats fine. Blame them for not educating themselves, not a TV show. That's like blaming McDonalds for making people fat.

It's TV. It's entertainment. Thats all it is. I enjoyed it. Its better than other garbage I could've watched (mtv,vh1 etc). I didn't watch it as a How-to video.
If people want to flock to the BMW dealers and buy everything Touratech, thats fine. Blame them for not educating themselves, not a TV show. That's like blaming McDonalds for making people fat.

Click to expand...

Agree. Still, it could have been a better show. Helps me fall asleep though.

it was about motorcycles (OK, it was about the two guys, but bikes were heavily featured) --

It wasn't some faux chopper deal.

It wasn't Sons of Aracnids (or whatever the name is)

The riders were nice guys -

I fail to see how this could be damaging, unless, of course, you're one of the guys that got yer shorts in a twist when the Motorcyclist columnist slagged guys with ADV stickers - in which case, I see your point, no more guys having fun on bikes unless they are fixing their tubes with their teeth 1/3 of the way into the Darien Gap.

I fail to see how this could be damaging, unless, of course, you're one of the guys that got yer shorts in a twist when the Motorcyclist columnist slagged guys with ADV stickers - in which case, I see your point, no more guys having fun on bikes unless they are fixing their tubes with their teeth 1/3 of the way into the Darien Gap.

Have not watched any of it. But I am curious as to how the series  has done more damage to the activity of off-road riding than any other movie/show ever released.? What was damaged and how? Did that horrendous pap called Top Gun damage naval aviation?

...Friends I have are doing far more interesting and courageous adventure travel without the support this two "actors" have...

Click to expand...

Maybe, but your friends didn't video tape it for everyone to watch.

I really don't understand why people like to whine about what they did.. Does having a support crew make it less of an Adventure? Does it somehow negate the fact that they still rode their motorcycles around the world?? As far as I'm concerned, the only people who have any room at all to give the long way guys grief, are the few people who have done similar trips and recorded their travels to share with everyone.

Take it for what it is. The nay sayers just sound a little bitter because they didn't do it first.

KTM, BMW, any enduro bike they would have taken would have been grossly overloaded anyway. I thought they held up quite well, particularly after they flooded the engine with water and I saw water spewing out the exhaust. Most bikes would have thrown a rod through the case at that point.

Would a KTM have been able to carry the contents of a 1/2 ton truck? Not sure.

As for the OP, I would be interested to hear which bike, specifically, you think should have been the bike of choice?

KTM, BMW, any enduro bike they would have taken would have been grossly overloaded anyway.

Click to expand...

That's the nut of it right there, if you ask me. If you looked at all the crap they took with them on those bikes, just about any bike would wind up with a cracked frame after a few hundred miles. One each of everything for each person, just about. From the list in the back of the book: toilet paper roll holders; Thermarest chairs and folding stools; fishing bags and tackle boxes; multiple cook stoves; binoculars; Dictaphones (WTF??); snoods (whatever those are); soap, travel soap, shower gel, shampoo, shaving gel (one bar of soap would do for all of those); and on and on. Took them halfway around the world to figure out they had four times as much stuff as they needed.

But in spite of all that, I enjoyed the series, and still watch it again from time to time. Very cool to see the people they met, the places they went, and all that stuff. I wish I could do it, too.